Main Menu

Our Evolving Focus and Framework

Nearly two years ago, in September 2013, buildingafortress established an “Our Focus” page—a repository for the lines of action we initiated to strengthen our marriage. At the outset, we identified 12 lines of action, organizing them into three mutually reinforcing groups. Each action was accompanied by sacred writings and divine guidance from the Bahá’í teachings. We focused on one group per week, which provided us an opportunity to systematically reflect and identify our strengths, challenges, and opportunities. To this end, we explored additional areas of growth.

Since that time, the way we have come to understand growth and the processes that support it have advanced. Our capacity for systematic action and, as such, the very nature of our focus and the framework we employ have evolved. Furthermore, we have continually ruminated on the following words of the Universal House of Justice:

One of your primary concerns will be to strengthen appreciation for systematic action, already heightened by the successes it has brought. To arrive at a unified vision of growth based on a realistic assessment of possibilities and resources, to develop strategies that lend structure to it, to devise and implement plans of action commensurate with capacity, to make necessary adjustments while maintaining continuity, to build on accomplishments—these are some of the requisites of systematization that every community must learn and internalize.
~The Universal House of Justice, 28 December 2005

In this light, our unwavering commitment and accumulation of experience has inspired confidence. Further, our appreciation for and dedication to the process has increased exponentially. Therefore, we are excited to announce that we will begin to routinely share our institution’s cycle reflections on buildingafortress. To note: For those interested in how our learning cycles take shape, see our post: Individual and Institutional Rejuvenation. Moving forward, every third post on buildingafortress will consist of:

Learning Cycle Objective

Select Lines of Action Planned

Germane Guidance

General Reflections

We are grateful for your engagement in this process, we appreciate your support, and we look forward to seeing how our approach continues to evolve.